Toyota:

An Advanced City of Industrial Globalization and its Local Communities

Abstract

According to the previous studies on Toyota automobile workers, they would not participate in social activities, for they are forced to work hard under pressure featuring Toyota Production System and alienated from their neighborhoods, which are dominated by old residents. However, due to structural changes around local communities in recent years, Toyota workers have gradually formed social ties in their neighborhoods, have begun enjoying personal lives and actively committing to various social activities.

Based on the data from the questionnaire survey conducted in 2009, the present paper will illustrate and examine the contour of the local class structure and the social consciousness of residents in Toyota Furthermore interestingly, as will be shown in a regression analysis, it is the accumulation of social networks embedded in local communities that has brought about this change.